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April 05, 2012

The Chronicles of Ridiculous

On almost every single conceivable level, this Kate/Connie D.I.D. storyline is an embarrassment; like, I'm embarrassed to be watching it. A compelling D.I.D. story can be told and HAS been told by these very powers-that-be, but this particular story has been so sloppily cobbled together and seems to be written and directed with the mantra "No ludicrous is too ludicrous!" and all of my memories of Kate Howard as played by Megan Ward, who I loved dearly, are completely tarnished, so most of me wants to groan the groaniest of groans every time Kate/Connie's heavily made up face appears onscreen. But then this happens and then this:

Kate/Connie: Jason Freaking Morgan. Who does he think he is coming in he-ah, asking all those questions. Why don't you sit behind your desk, did you see the gun over there in the corner? PLEASE. I should have just told him. I shoulda just looked into his pretty little eyes and said 'Kate Howard ain't he-ah no more. I'm Connie Falconeri and I don't take crap from nobody!'

and I find myself wishing I could spend an entire hour watching Kelly Sullivan make insane faces and break out one of the craziest Brooklyn accents ever put on film. It is simultaneously the worst thing on television and the best thing on television and the fact that Sonny is so wholly unaware of anything strange going on ("Hey, your voice is different and you literally just jolted! What color tie do you think I should wear tonight?") makes everything both better and worse. I am both entertained and filled with shame. My General Hospital viewing life is one big conundrum.

Keeping with the ridiculous theme, there was some...uh, strangeness with Ewen today and now I'm wondering (actually, I'm not wondering, because that would imply that I am interested on some level and I'm the opposite of that) if he is a Jacks relative. Or someone sinister obsessed with the Jacks family.

Ewen: I've cornered the market on Australians around here.Elizabeth: Well, unless Jax comes back.Ewen: Jasper Jacks?Elizabeth: Yeah! Do you know him?Ewen: Australia may the be smallest continent, but I haven't met him.Elizabeth: It sounded like you knew him.

EWEN: Uh, I, uh, I...I've heard the name before, you know, in conversation. Just Australians talking about other Australians, you know? Aussies be gossipy!ELIZABETH: Oh.EWEN: I've heard, you know, that he's a financier. A corporate raider, if you will. A corporate raider buys companies, with money--ELIZABETH: Yeah, I know what a corporate raider is...EWEN: Well, did you know that Jax has a brother named Jerry, who held people hostage in some, like, totally random hotel a few years ago? I, uh, heard that that happened.ELIZABETH: Yeah! It was this hotel, and I was here.EWEN: REALLY? I had no idea that it was this hotel. That was conveniently left out of the story I heard about this whole thing! Aussies be bad reporters!ELIZABETH: Jax was totally depressed when he found out that his brother was a psycho, and it broke his mother's heart.EWEN: His mother, known in some circles as Lady Jane?ELIZABETH: ...EWEN: Or so I've heard.ELIZABETH: You know a lot about the Jacks family.EWEN: Only what I've read during my countless hours spent researching this family in painstaking detail.ELIZABETH: ...EWEN: Am I being weird? Let me hastily change the subject! Aussies be bad at diversions!

Comments

Actually FV and RC have never told a compelling DID story.. Did you know that a child porn survivor being almost raped by her father should be played up as campily as possible. Anyone who thought FV or RC would save GH never watched RC and FV destroy OLTL through their rapemance stories 1 and 2

+++Anyone who thought FV or RC would save GH never watched RC and FV destroy OLTL through their rapemance stories 1 and 2+++

I watched OLTL and I think RC and FV did a pretty fine job all around. What you call the rapemance is your take on it, the feeling was not universal.
And more important, they did lots of other storylines that were very good. And they were fans of the core of the show, unlike some writers and producers who preceded them.
I don't see this DID storyline being played just for laughs, and I certainly didn't see Jessica's DID storyline played for laughs at all. RC had done some things in questionable taste - all things ?Ford-related first of all - but overall he's pretty good. And I think he is GH's best hope for the future.

I thought Jess' last D.I.D. split, especially the pointless invention of Wes and everything about Ford, was pretty awful and not sexy and fun like RC and FV clearly thought it was.

But I agree that RC wrote a lot of good and entertaining material as well. And, I dunno, this Kate/Connie story isn't terrible so far. Maybe because it's new to Kate and she's so clearly freaked out everytime she emerges from Connie's control. It makes it less of a a joke.

Olivia always made such a big deal that Connie changed her name to Kate and left Bensonhurst. The woman tells every freaking person that she runs into and then hounds Kate like a dog because she left home and went to college. Kate did not think she would have been accepted in the fashion world decades ago and she's probably right.

All of a sudden Olivia is calling Connie/Kate as someone who would put the moves on another woman's man and that is a huge OCC change when MW was in the role. KS is at least twenty years younger than MB and it's really starting to show in their scenes.

Sigh. Liz has gone out and found another whack job like Ric Lansing from when he first came to town. Run, Liz, Run! I had high hopes that Ewan would be a good guy and it now looks like he's on the crazy train like Ric!

I thought most of the Tess stories in RC's time as headwriter were unwatchable. His idea of Tess bore little resemblance to how she'd been written in her first stint on the show. She was now little more than a campy joke, making passes at her sister and her uncle, shoving her tongue against glass doors. She had always loved Nash and her child with Nash, yet she now ignored said child, and neglected her pregnancy with Nash, which led to gruesomely written and acted scenes where she had a stillbirth.

This led to Bess, which was little more than Bree Williamson wearing glasses and trying not to move her face.

The only time I remember good DID scenes from this writer was when Tess/Jessica/Bess were all in a cage and watching her story on a TV. This was, for some reason, the only time Ron Carlivati treated this matter seriously instead of constantly wanting to have this as a joke.

"And they were fans of the core of the show, unlike some writers and producers who preceded them. "

I agree to a point, but during FV's years as producer, the show veered wildly from headwriter to headwriter, and decisions were made which I would hope a fan of the core of the show would never approve, like Niki taking a young Jessica out to bars and causing her to be put in kiddie porn.

For me there wasn't much to like today. Way too much Sam, who really annoyed me when she whined Jason's been waiting a long time for a child. As if he hadn't had one the previous regime killed off in yet another attempt to prop KeMo up. And then she whined some more that Jason never deliberately hurts anyone. What does that mean? He's a hit man. He kills for a living. It's all so delusional.

As for Ewen, still mildly interested. Especially because I think he must be the spawn of Jerry Jax.

It looks like the new regime may be trying to tie Ewen to something else in order to give him more of a purpose, because I got the feeling he was supposed to be a Cassidine or involved with them in the past. Remember there was a scene where Alexis and Molly were looking at old pix and Alexis mentioned the cook's 2 children (boy and girl) and how one day they suddenly disappeared and were never seen again. Then we cut to Ewen and LIW. Now that that dopey story is mercifully over, Ewen sort of has no purpose but to spout psychoanalysis at every person he sees and try to sort out Kate. Ewen seems sort of sketchy to me. I'm still hoping he was the one who shot out Anthony's tires and shot Dante, because he never showed up at the party that night. Why he would do that I have no idea, but I'm sure the writers can think up some convoluted way to tie him to that story! Maybe he works for Jerry?! They are pushing us to believe it was Kate/Connie who did all the shootings, so I'm thinking there has to be a twist in here somewhere besides the D.I.D.

@Carl, I remember several great scenes in the Jess DID story. What about when Jess finally realized that her baby died because of her illness? She and Erika Slezak had me in tears for all of those scenes.

When it wasn't that dramatic it wasn't as good, but they did the drama and the pain very, very well, with no hint of comedy.

I WAS annoyed when Tess came back after the non-wedding baby reveal, because that just didn't ring true for me at all given the huge trauma required to cause DID in the first place. And the rhyming names really got to me too - Wes? Really? At least most of Viki's names made sense in the context of the show (I don't know about Tommy, but Jean Randolph = Eugenia Randolph Lord, her mother). But I never thought the Tess story was played for laughs even when it was completely annoying.

This story doesn't compare, IMO, and I'm irked that FV/RC did it practically the day they started writing for GH. It feels like a rip-off. That said, I have enjoyed the Connie personality. She's much more real than Kate and I like the actress better as Connie than as Kate.